Highly stable and printable Ag NWs/GO/PVP composite ink for flexible electronics

Abstract Silver nanowire (Ag NW) ink has attracted significant attention due to its excellent conductivity for flexible electronics. However, the junctions of Ag NWs are unstable without a post-treatment process. In this paper, high-dispersibility Ag NWs/graphene oxide (GO)/polyvinyl pyrrolidone (PVP) composite ink has been synthesized. The mixing of PVP can improve the dispersibility of Ag NWs in water, and the GO is employed to enhance the connection between Ag NWs. Finally, The Ag NWs/GO/PVP composite ink-based flexible electrode (FE) reaches a resistivity of 8.6 mΩ cm after sintering at 100 °C for 15 min and shows superior reliability even after 6000 bending cycles. Moreover, the FE coated with composite ink shows a better performance than pure Ag NWs under high temperature and humidity conditions (70 °C, 75% Relative Humidity (RH)). The thermal stability of Ag NWs is also improved by GO, as the morphology nearly maintains their initial structure under 240 °C, indicating their potential applications in high-reliability flexible electronics.